Africa's Infant Mortality Rate Unacceptable

Panafrican News Agency, 6 May 1998

HARARE, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Experts from 12 African countries have
called on governments on the continent to draw up realistic and
feasible reproductive health policies and provide sufficient funds for
the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) reproductive
health strategy for Africa.

The strategy aims to reverse Africa's current unacceptably high
maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates.

This was one of the recommendations made by the reproductive health
experts at the end of the first inter-country meeting on the
implementation of the reproductive health strategy held at Kadoma in
Zimbabwe from April 20 to 24.

Participants at the meeting included national directors and managers
of reproductive health and related programmes and WHO representatives
from 11 southern African countries and cape Verde.

Others were WHO reproductive health programme managers from the
organisation's African regional office, now temporarily based in
Harare, its headquarters in Geneva, and experts from United Nations
Population Fund and the Joint UN Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

The meeting reviewed various aspects of reproductive health in Africa
and made recommendations on how to improve the situation through the
implementation of the new strategy.

The participants recommended that African countries must ensure that
their reproductive health policies and other related policies are
realistic and feasible, taking into consideration each country's
specific needs and available resources.

The plans, they advised, should be used as bases for mobilising
internal resources and for negotiations with interested donors.

African countries were also urged to strengthen their district health
systems within their health sector reforms and allocate appropriate
and sufficient resources for the implementation of the reproductive
health strategy.

In addition, they proposed that countries should strengthen their
overall health systems, ensure capacity building in all areas of
reproductive health and involve the media in efforts to promote
reproductive health.

Addressing participants at the close of the meeting, the WHO Regional
Director for Africa, Ebrahim Malick Samba, called for vigorous
implementation of the newly-launched reproductive health strategy.

He pointed out that it was unacceptable that 250,000 mothers died due
to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth and three million
children died within the first week of life in Africa each year.

This is unacceptable, he emphasised, adding that urgent action must be
taken to end the situation through the implementation of the
reproductive health strategy.